ListenUppsala University's Museum of Nordic Archaeology was officially established in 1857 and Professor Johann Henrik Schröder donated his archaeological collection to Uppsala University. It comprised 79 objects. The collection would increase dramatically as early as 1861 when Count Von Essen of Wik donated his collection of 201 objects of archaeological relics and weapons to the museum.
Following that the collection was filled with a mineralogical section, among other things, a small stone axe containing runes. The year after, Major A.F.M. Lundeberg’s collection of up to more than 600 archaeological relics and weapons from various ages was purchased for 4000 ‘riksdaler’.
During the 20th century the flow of donations and purchases of a smaller and larger scale continued. Some of these were the Observatory’s collection of rune staffs, the second largest in Sweden, Baron Cederström’s collection of archaeological relics and full pieces, as well as Schürer von Waldheim’s enormous collection of objects from the peasant culture, in particular from Roslagen.
An archaeological investigation was carried out between 1907 and 1909 at Studentholmen in Uppsala in connection with the erection of a market-hall. The extensive finds from the Middle Ages would be included in the archaeological relics collection.
At the same time as the excavations at Valsgärde between 1928 and 1936 and between 1946 and 1952, the museum retained the magnificent finds consisting of weapons, helmets, horse equipment, household utensils and more from around the period of 400 to 1100 AD.
The collections were exhibited first at the Gustavianum then to be moved to the newly refurbished premises in the Ekerman building in 1870 and after that in 1897 to the Orangery at the Linnaeus Garden. In 1921 the collections returned to the Gustavianum where they have been exhibited ever since.